On March 4th, the FAO office in El Salvador and its counterpart, the National Council for Food Security and Nutrition - CONASAN (Consejo Nacional de Seguridad Alimentaria y Nutricional de El Salvador), organized a National Forum on the right to food that provided an opportunity for the country, based on an inter-institutional outlook and a State vision, to gather a wide range of institutions which have been contributing to this human right and saw the need for coordination to further improve.

At the Forum, 175 participants came from Civil Society, State Institutions (Ministry of Agriculture, Defender of the Consumers, Human Rights Prosecutor Office, Ministry of Economy, the CONASAN, and The Competition Superintendence of El Salvador (CS), the Secretariat for Social Inclusion, the Technical Secretariat of the Presidency, and the Private Sector. The Forum provided the opportunity to launch "Advances and obstacles in the implementation of the Voluntary Guidelines to Support the Progressive Realization of the Right to Adequate Food in the Context of National Food Security – The case of El Salvador", which systematize and communicate advances and challenges of the State related to the substantive application of the Right to Food Guidelines in light of the retrospective process for the tenth anniversary and the 41st session of the Committee on World Food Security [see related section here].

Throughout the political, economic and social history of El Salvador, steps taken have shown not only the political will on the matter but also concrete measures that confirm the will of the State to apply a human rights-based approach. Through it, the country has strengthened its decision-making processes on food security and nutrition. 

The case of El Salvador shows that even in countries with limited resources and capacities, when political will and leadership are translated into strategic decisions and concrete actions to remedy historical, programmatic and institutional inertia, it is not only possible to renew the public policies agenda and its intervention components, but also contribute to create social capacities for the progressive – and eventually definitive – eradication of hunger, malnutrition and food insecurity.  

This publication was made possible by the vital collaboration of the project GCP/GLO/324/NOR “Integrating the Right to Adequate Food and Good Governance in National Policies, Legislation and Institutions” financed by the Government of Norway and the important contributions provided by the “Iniciativa América Latina y el Caribe sin Hambre 2025” financed by the Government of Spain and Brasil, GCP/RLA/193/BRA “Apoyo a las Estrategias Nacionales y Subregionales de Seguridad Alimentaria y Nutricional y de superación de la Pobreza”, and TCP/ELS/3501 “Fortalecimiento de la SAN y la Agricultura Familiar con enfoque de derecho”.